Knee Pain
 

I know the best response is "go see a doctor" which I do plan on doing if it doesn't get better by tomorrow, but I was hoping someone might be able to shed some light on this before I stand in line at the walk-in clinic.

Sunday evening I played soccer as I have done all season, rode my bike home, ate, showered, watched some TV and went to bed feeling 100%. Monday morning I wake up and barely able to bend my left knee. I had to lift my foot up with my hand to put a pair of shorts on. Stairs are virtually impossible without using the handrail.There is no swelling and no point tenderness. It seemed to feel marginally better by mid-day but now seems to be getting a bit worse. I think the longer I go without moving my knee, the more painful it will be when I try to move it the next time.

there's so many possible reasons for knee pain that the doctor option is best bet. if you can, see your family doctor, not a walk-in. if you don't have one, you really should look for one to track your medical history.

knee pain can be caused by bone/joint related or muscle. you need to identify what's the cause. btw you might think you don't have swelling but you might actually. i had those symptoms before and didn't see any bulges but the dr quickly identified areas where he said was obvious swelling. though the symptoms were muscle related, the issue was joint related in my case.

didn't really answer your question, but best advice i can give you is don't shrug it off and let this shit linger. might be nothing, but might be something...don't wanna pay for it when you get older

Thanks, I wish I had a family doctor but since I moved from the lower mainland to the interior (7.5 years ago), I have been checking regularly and there are zero doctors taking new patients so walk-in is my only option. They opened at 8:30, I was there at 8:40, booked me in for 11:15. I showed up just after 11 and they got me in at 12:05. I was in and out in literally less than 5 minutes. She did say she could see swelling and poked around on both knees and asked if I could feel the differences. I couldn't but said I could because what do I know... she's the doctor. Anyways, I got a prescription for an anti-inflamatory cream that two pharmacies have now turned me away because they don't have them in stock. Awesome.

The doctor would know best however you could try RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression + Elevation) and Ibuprofen. Traumeel (London Drugs carries it) is a decent topical anti-inflammatory until you can pick up your prescription.

Roll your IT band, massage is more effective.
When exercising don't let the knee go beyond perpendicular to the big toe.
Move the saddle back.
Keep exercising.
:)

I was having a similar problem earlier this summer. I had been comfortably commuting by bike for a couple of months, but then I started getting knee pain. I read that it could be the way I was riding and it turned out that my seat had loosened and had been gradually getting lower without me noticing. I raised the seat back up and I also adjusted where I put my feet on the pedals - apparently this also makes a difference. I stopped biking for a couple days to give my knees the rest and when I started back up the knee pain gradually disappeared.

Could also just be that you strained it during soccer without noticing and the pain onset was delayed. Do you usually ride and play soccer on the same day, because I also noticed that adding extra workouts while I was riding my bike made the knee pain worse before I figured out the problem.

Riding was just to commute to/from the game - not for exercise per-se. A leisurely 10 minute ride each way. My knee has been getting better and feels like 85-90% right now, but Sat and Sun are soccer playoffs so we'll see how it feels after 2-3 games this weekend. I haven't played since my knee started to act up.

I did end up getting the cream, but I can't tell if it's doing anything or not.

Usually knee pain is normally really hard to diagnose especially because the knee is such a complex system. It's normal that the doc only gave you pain meds and anti-inflammatories because they just want you to be pain free. I'm pretty sure if you go see a responsible massage therapist/physio/chiro - they could probably give you a better idea of what's going on without going to see an orthopedic surgeon for a differential diagnosis. Good luck. Hopefully it's nothing too serious.

Thanks, played two games of soccer yesterday and could feel some knee discomfort within the first 10 mins of the first game. I iced, advil'd, and cream'd between games and was good enough for the second game, but I figured I'd be back to where I started by this morning, but it's actually feeling pretty good. Soccer is done so hopefully time will finish the healing process.

Where is the pain localized at. Is it more in the back or all through?